Sacramento’s neighborhoods conjure up too many stereotypes to count. You’ve got hipster areas, preppy places, neighborhoods where college kids thrive, and of course, ghettos.
It seems as if there’s a neighborhood for everyone in Sacramento.
And while the city consistently ranks as one of the best places to live in the country thanks in part to a strong economy and tons of entertainment, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine in Sacramento. Some neighborhoods aren’t as great as others.
So the question arises, which Sacramento neighborhoods are the worst, and which are the best?
Today, we’ll use science and data to determine which Sacramento hoods need a little tender loving care – the sore thumbs of the Sacramento area if you will. Realistically, you can’t expect all the neighborhoods to be amazing, although River Park ranks way above the rest.
We examined 113 of Sacramento’s neighborhoods to find out the worst places to live. These places don’t quite measure up to Sacramento’s reputation.
Here are the 10 worst neighborhoods in Sacramento according to data:
- Granite Regional Park
- Village 5
- Parker Homes
- Ben Ali
- Village Green
- Wills Acres
- Old North Sacramento
- South Hagginwood
- Norwood Tech
- Cannon Industrial Park
So what’s the worst neighborhood to live in Sacramento for 2019? According to the most recent census data, Granite Regional Park looks to be the worst neighborhood in Sacramento.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Sacramento that need a pick-me-up. And remember, don’t blame the messenger.
Once you’re done, you can look at the bottom of the story for a complete chart of every neighborhood we looked at from worst to best.
Looking for places to avoid outside of the city? You can also check out the worst suburbs of Sacramento.
For more California reading, check out:
- 10 Best Places To Live In California
- 10 Cheapest Places To Live In California
- 10 Most Dangerous Cities In California
How we determined the worst Sacramento hoods in 2019
To figure out how bad a place is to live in, we only needed to know what kinds of things people like and then decide what places have the least amount of those things. We threw the following criteria into this analysis in order to get the best, most complete results possible. We used this set of criteria for each neighborhood in Sacramento:
- High unemployment (Less jobs)
- Low median income (Less pay)
- Low population density (No things to do)
- Low home values (No one’s willing to pay to live here)
- High crime (Estimated)
Then, we ranked each neighborhood in Sacramento, California for each of these criteria from worst to best.
Next, we averaged the individual rankings for each criteria into a “Worst Score”.
The neighborhood with the lowest “Worst Score” ranks as the worst neighborhood of Sacramento.
Read on below to learn more about these terrible places around Sacramento to live. Or skip to the end to see the list of all 113 neighborhoods ranked from worst to best.
This list is a scientific analysis based on real data and is completely unbiased. Hold on to your pants.
/10
Population: 114
Rank Last Year: 5 (Up 4)
Median Home Value: $32,800 (1st worst)
Median Income: $30,665 (12th worst)
More on Granite Regional Park: Data
2. Village 5
/10
Population: 504
Rank Last Year: –
Median Home Value: $81,250 (8th worst)
Median Income: $40,180 (41st worst)
/10
Population: 243
Rank Last Year: 2 (Down 1)
Median Home Value: $66,650 (5th worst)
Median Income: $37,078 (27th worst)
More on Parker Homes: Data
/10
Population: 992
Rank Last Year: 1 (Down 3)
Median Home Value: $154,500 (41st worst)
Median Income: $19,558 (2nd worst)
More on Ben Ali: Data
/10
Population: 205
Rank Last Year: 3 (Down 2)
Median Home Value: $35,500 (2nd worst)
Median Income: $40,147 (40th worst)
More on Village Green: Data
/10
Population: 1,025
Rank Last Year: 14 (Up 8)
Median Home Value: $114,700 (13th worst)
Median Income: $22,946 (4th worst)
More on Wills Acres: Data
/10
Population: 3,865
Rank Last Year: 12 (Up 5)
Median Home Value: $72,080 (6th worst)
Median Income: $21,441 (3rd worst)
More on Old North Sacramento: Data
/10
Population: 4,864
Rank Last Year: 26 (Up 18)
Median Home Value: $93,583 (10th worst)
Median Income: $31,452 (14th worst)
More on South Hagginwood: Data
/10
Population: 325
Rank Last Year: 4 (Down 5)
Median Home Value: $155,800 (43rd worst)
Median Income: $33,750 (18th worst)
More on Norwood Tech: Data
/10
Population: 1,314
Rank Last Year: 6 (Down 4)
Median Home Value: $131,067 (19th worst)
Median Income: $30,566 (10th worst)
More on Cannon Industrial Park: Data
The ‘hoods around Sacramento that are really hoods
Well there you have it — the worst of the neighborhoods in Sacramento with Granite Regional Park landing at the bottom of the pack.
As we mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Sacramento aren’t all bad. River Park takes the cake as the best place to live in Sacramento.
We ranked the neighborhoods from worst to best in the chart below.
For more California reading, check out:
- 10 Most Ghetto Cities In California
- These Are The 10 Richest Cities In California
- 10 Safest Places In California
- 10 Best Cities For Singles In California